Guild Wars 2

I got my main elementalist to level 80 a month and a half ago and still have not gotten an exotic drop. Wvw has done me nothing, champ and world boss events have gotten me nothing, and fractals have done me nothing. I have 56sh magic find (last time I checked but that was a while ago). Someone donate me there exotics because I want my kitten globs already.

Cute.

I’ve been playing since beta and I can count the exotics I’ve had drop on one hand. If you want consistent exotics, go run dungeons and use your tokens. Also, you haven’t earned a single gold from all your adventures to buy exotics of the TP?
Sketchy.

Also, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Hahaha thanks Benjamin Franklin I feel your pain I just feel like when you make and account some sadistic nerd in a dark room determines wether your accounts characters will be swimming in exotic drops or left in a barren wasteland of nothing but greens and blues… And I did have a lot of gold from my entire progression (~30 gold for my asuras tier cultural armor). It’s not buying them that is the issue I just want to get one to frikken drop.

Well no one is getting good exotic drops by the bunch. They drop very rarely from all sources. Very rarely.

Running a single path in AC nets you enough money to buy an exotic of the TP. Doing it three times adds another exotic of the tokens. That’s 4 exotics for 30-45 minutes of gaming. That’s not too bad is it?

Hate to break it to ya, but relying on luck will not get you very far. Go earn some more money, and buy whatever you want off the TP, simple as that. Any special drops you get? Consider them a bonus.

top level map completion gives 2 exotics each time each character you do it on. So that is 10? (not sure how many maps give exotics) exotics minimum (have never seen a lvl 80 exotic but since you just want the globs of dark matter it does not matter at all).

Neek.9531:

I got my main elementalist to level 80 a month and a half ago and still have not gotten an exotic drop. Wvw has done me nothing, champ and world boss events have gotten me nothing, and fractals have done me nothing. I have 56sh magic find (last time I checked but that was a while ago). Someone donate me there exotics because I want my kitten globs already.

A decent way of doing it is by combining weapons in the mystic forge.

4 blues = 1 green
4 greens = 1 rare
4 rares = 1 exotic

Not a 100% reliable way of doing it but you can sell the ones you don’t want for some quick cash and buy one too.

Been playing since Launch, Exotic drop from mobs still didn’t exceed by 30. Heck probably not even 20.

Avatar Rage.4369:

Neek.9531:

I got my main elementalist to level 80 a month and a half ago and still have not gotten an exotic drop. Wvw has done me nothing, champ and world boss events have gotten me nothing, and fractals have done me nothing. I have 56sh magic find (last time I checked but that was a while ago). Someone donate me there exotics because I want my kitten globs already.

A decent way of doing it is by combining weapons in the mystic forge.

4 blues = 1 green
4 greens = 1 rare
4 rares = 1 exotic

Not a 100% reliable way of doing it but you can sell the ones you don’t want for some quick cash and buy one too.

Nope, far from a 100% actually. More like 20% chance of it happening, meaning that depending on what you throw in and what you get, there’s a rather large chance of losing a lot of money there. (cfr. Precursor gambling)

Avatar Rage.4369:

Neek.9531:

I got my main elementalist to level 80 a month and a half ago and still have not gotten an exotic drop. Wvw has done me nothing, champ and world boss events have gotten me nothing, and fractals have done me nothing. I have 56sh magic find (last time I checked but that was a while ago). Someone donate me there exotics because I want my kitten globs already.

A decent way of doing it is by combining weapons in the mystic forge.

4 blues = 1 green
4 greens = 1 rare
4 rares = 1 exotic

Not a 100% reliable way of doing it but you can sell the ones you don’t want for some quick cash and buy one too.

To be fair, it is far from 100%, if you throw in 4 rares you have a 20% change to get an exotic.

For the rest, as being said exotic drops are very rare. Farm money and buy what you need is the best option.

Hmmmm…

Anyone care to explain why it is that everyone says that exotic drops are as rare as hen’s teeth and yet the TP is stuffed with exotics for sale.

I’ve never had an exotic drop in about a year of playing but I have no difficulty in finding any exotic I need on the TP (at quite reasonable price too).

Smells fishy to me.

Contiguous.1345:

Hmmmm…

Anyone care to explain why it is that everyone says that exotic drops are as rare as hen’s teeth and yet the TP is stuffed with exotics for sale.

I’ve never had an exotic drop in about a year of playing but I have no difficulty in finding any exotic I need on the TP (at quite reasonable price too).

Smells fishy to me.

Because there are thousands of players playing for thousands of hours, so even if exotics don’t drop for you, they’ll drop for someone. Chances are that someone will already have their exotics through one of the numerous guaranteed ways to get them, so they’ll put them up for sale instead of using them, especially if it’s a less desired stat combo.

@OP: Random chance is exactly that- randomness. If something has a .01% chance of happening, that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to get it after 10000 tries, it just means that on each of those 10000 tries, you have a .01% chance of getting it- and on the flip side, a 99.99% chance of NOT getting it. Every try is the same as each other= trying longer does not guarantee success. The first try is the same as the last try- the 10000th try is still a 99.99% chance of the event NOT happening.

There are numerous guaranteed ways to get exotics of practically every stat combo. Instead of sitting around wishing for things to fall into your hands, try one of the suggestions that has already been made.

As everyone already said, don’t rely on dropped exotics to gear up, they’re really not that frequent at all (playing since release and still consider a pleasant surprise when one drops) and chances are if you happen to get one exotic to drop, it won’t be the type (light, medium, heavy) or with the stat distribution you’re looking for (which is why most people just toss them into the TP when they get one). There are lots of other ways to gear up with exotics without relying on the TP.

1.- Crafting. Check the guides on http://gw2crafts.net/ , leveling a crafting profesion to 400 (when you can start craftinc exotics) looks expensive, but if you’ve been gathering and playing to 80 you probably already have enough materials to level up at least one of them (tailoring, leatherworking or armorcrafting, depending on your profession). This is another source of exotics on the TP, btw…

2.- Dungeons. In my experience it’s easier to get exotic drops from dungeons than in the open world, but not by much. But each dungeon run will get you a little over 60 tokens, each piece of exotic armor costs between 180 to 330 tokens. Just check which dungeon armor vendor has the stats (and looks, each has unique skins) you want and go for it.

3.- Temple armor. The temples in orr give sell exotic armor for 40k karma a piece. Check this guide to see which temples sell the stats you want for each armor piece:

http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/

and this website to see which temples are open on which server (you can guest over to purchase the armor you want):

http://www.gw2state.com/temples.html

4.- WvW. When playing WvW you get badges of honor from kills, and also you can get lots of them from achievement chests every 500 achievement points. There are vendors inside WvW that sell exotic armor with different stat combinations for badges of honor and a bit of coin (you’d need 950 badges + little over 5g to get a full exotic set this way). Be aware, though, that you can also use badges of honor to purchase ascended accesories, the laurel vendor inside WvW sells the same accesories the ones on main cities sell, but for 10 laurels less + 250 badges of honor.

And of course you can also combine them all, maybe buying the cheapest pieces off dungeon merchants (head, gloves, feet), other pieces from temples, others from WvW and so on.

I don’t think the OP has any need for advice on gear acquisition, he just wants to feel like he is not being singled out for drop hate. Depending on how much you play perhaps this info may help.

I have played 2486 hours since launch, or about 6 hours a day. You can’t get exotics on lower level characters, so I had no chance for exotics for about the first 2 months.

When I finally worked through enough alts to find a character I liked enough to main and pushed to 80, I played that level 80 pretty much 100% (over 1900 hours on main.) After about a 6 week drought, I then began to see about 1 exotic a month, or 1 per 180 hours. I was in better health a year ago and the game shiny and new, so I probably averaged more like 8 hours a day then, but I also took some short breaks from GW2 for other games, as my guild was exploring options, so the hours per month is still close enough.

Before the massive nerfs to cursed shore farming and the antibot nerfs with the vicious DR that hit everybody, I had a full exotic Magic Find suit and trinkets briefly (170% + with food and guild/stacking buffs.) That helped a lot, and for a short time I was getting about 2-3 exotics a week. Post nerfs I just put that gear in storage. Regular open world Exotic drops returned to maybe 1 per month. Rares were shot in the head too, which was really painful.

With the change to the once a day Bonus Chest with guaranteed rare or better on World Bosses, things got much better, and it was possible to drop enough stuff to have a little gold. I would say about half the exotics I have gotten since that improvement have come from the bonus chests. I was getting about 2 per month. I think I have only gotten 2 exotics from main chests.

Now with account wide MF and my personal MF at about 77% + the 20% off the Golden Lotus with MF Infusion I was forced to keep, and had to put duplicate stats on, I am seeing 3-4 exotics a month. So 3-4 per about 180 hours, or almost 1 per week.

So if you just want the fun of an occasional Exotic drop, do the activities that give you bonus chances at better drops, like world bosses and champs. Sounds to me like the OP is on the right track and just having a bad run of RNG hate. Or maybe there is some new level 80 thing going on. I do remember that stretch of almost two months when I first got to 80 where I thought exotic drops were a myth.

I have only ever dropped 3 exotics I actually used unmodified and maybe 4 more I kept for skins. Getting adequate rares to salvage or sell is really the key for gold if you want to get along by just playing and defeating stuff. You do have to be sure you get that daily since Laurels are so useful, but if you play 6 hours a day that is pretty much an auto. At lower levels like 2-3 hours you will have to focus daily, so it gets a bit grindy. And the Badges of Honor for discount Ascended have been really good to stretch the Laurels for multiple alts. Guild Commendations for Ascended accessories are a blessing if your guild can do the required activities. Doing a bunch of World Bosses everyday is still grindy too, but I try to vary the ones I visit and that helps a bit. Grinding dungeons and or Fractals is not my style either (though Fractals are apparently the best way to get a lot of the Ascended gear, and at least some Fractals are the only way to get a back item.)

I guess it really is impossible to design a game like this with no grind at all.

Falunel.7645:

Because there are thousands of players playing for thousands of hours, so even if exotics don’t drop for you, they’ll drop for someone. Chances are that someone will already have their exotics through one of the numerous guaranteed ways to get them, so they’ll put them up for sale instead of using them, especially if it’s a less desired stat combo.

Now wait a minute – that doesn’t make sense.

We’v already established that exotics are a ‘rare drop’. Most players don’t see one in months of play. The chances of getting one out of the mystic toilet are equally slender.
In those months of play, each player will need probably a dozen or so exotics, which he/she will probably buy of the TP. Nobody simply gears up their one character and then sits on it for months playing the same rerun over-and-over.
How many exotics have you bought this year? How many sold?

Per player, that’s one or less in and a dozen or so out. The math doesn’t stack up.

One might almost begin to believe in the spontaneous creation of matter if it weren’t for such a thing being impossible. (note: tongue-in-cheek)
It’s a game, a make-believe world with a smoke-and-mirrors economy.

I’ve been playing since august and I have had at least 20 exotics, but 6 of them are from map completion. I salvaged 15 so far for 1 glob of dark matter

Been playing a year – never seen one.

I’ve been playing since start and I’ve gotten a few exotics, around 25. Now of these, a good 90% are from doing the world bosses, I try to do several a day. If you count the ones I’ve gotten as drops after playing way too many hours, it’s just a few. Maybe 3 since start. So if you want exotics to drop your best bet is to do the special events, including opening chests on a level 80 because they don’t drop much from killing mobs. If you want consistent exotics your best bet is to craft them.

Contiguous.1345:

Falunel.7645:

Because there are thousands of players playing for thousands of hours, so even if exotics don’t drop for you, they’ll drop for someone. Chances are that someone will already have their exotics through one of the numerous guaranteed ways to get them, so they’ll put them up for sale instead of using them, especially if it’s a less desired stat combo.

Now wait a minute – that doesn’t make sense.

We’v already established that exotics are a ‘rare drop’. Most players don’t see one in months of play. The chances of getting one out of the mystic toilet are equally slender.
In those months of play, each player will need probably a dozen or so exotics, which he/she will probably buy of the TP. Nobody simply gears up their one character and then sits on it for months playing the same rerun over-and-over.
How many exotics have you bought this year? How many sold?

Per player, that’s one or less in and a dozen or so out. The math doesn’t stack up.

One might almost begin to believe in the spontaneous creation of matter if it weren’t for such a thing being impossible. (note: tongue-in-cheek)
It’s a game, a make-believe world with a smoke-and-mirrors economy.

Most players get their exotics by crafting them, trading them for badges, trading in karma, or trading in dungeon tokens- through the guaranteed ways. Very, very few players gear up using random drops, which are usually for the wrong class or have the wrong stats to begin with. The players who salvage exotics for ectos or dark matter are relatively few and likely running dungeons for tokens to buy them with or just salvaging the exotics they had to craft to level up to 500. As far as I’ve seen, you buy dropped or MF’ed exotics for the looks, and there’s not a very high demand for the looks. So low demand = lower prices.

Also:
How many exotics have I bought? Minus the crafted pieces for my first ele, none. I crafted all of my armor and weapons for my other characters or used dungeons/badges/karma. For accessories, I skipped directly to Ascended.
How many have I sold? One or two.

There are exotic drops then there are exotic drops …
I’ve gotten exotics from dungeon and meta event chests.
I’ve gotten exotics as a direct drop but those were Settler trinkets in Southsun Cove.

It is worth noting that Colin referred to getting exotics through drops as being very difficult in his PAX interview with MattVisual. So no it’s not just you, overall across the whole game from the perspective of a dev(who can probably query the logs to check this stuff) it is difficult for anyone to gear a character up in exotics through drops.

JakHammer.7094:

I don’t think the OP has any need for advice on gear acquisition, he just wants to feel like he is not being singled out for drop hate. Depending on how much you play perhaps this info may help.

I have played 2486 hours since launch, or about 6 hours a day. You can’t get exotics on lower level characters, so I had no chance for exotics for about the first 2 months.

When I finally worked through enough alts to find a character I liked enough to main and pushed to 80, I played that level 80 pretty much 100% (over 1900 hours on main.) After about a 6 week drought, I then began to see about 1 exotic a month, or 1 per 180 hours. I was in better health a year ago and the game shiny and new, so I probably averaged more like 8 hours a day then, but I also took some short breaks from GW2 for other games, as my guild was exploring options, so the hours per month is still close enough.

Before the massive nerfs to cursed shore farming and the antibot nerfs with the vicious DR that hit everybody, I had a full exotic Magic Find suit and trinkets briefly (170% + with food and guild/stacking buffs.) That helped a lot, and for a short time I was getting about 2-3 exotics a week. Post nerfs I just put that gear in storage. Regular open world Exotic drops returned to maybe 1 per month. Rares were shot in the head too, which was really painful.

With the change to the once a day Bonus Chest with guaranteed rare or better on World Bosses, things got much better, and it was possible to drop enough stuff to have a little gold. I would say about half the exotics I have gotten since that improvement have come from the bonus chests. I was getting about 2 per month. I think I have only gotten 2 exotics from main chests.

Now with account wide MF and my personal MF at about 77% + the 20% off the Golden Lotus with MF Infusion I was forced to keep, and had to put duplicate stats on, I am seeing 3-4 exotics a month. So 3-4 per about 180 hours, or almost 1 per week.

So if you just want the fun of an occasional Exotic drop, do the activities that give you bonus chances at better drops, like world bosses and champs. Sounds to me like the OP is on the right track and just having a bad run of RNG hate. Or maybe there is some new level 80 thing going on. I do remember that stretch of almost two months when I first got to 80 where I thought exotic drops were a myth.

I have only ever dropped 3 exotics I actually used unmodified and maybe 4 more I kept for skins. Getting adequate rares to salvage or sell is really the key for gold if you want to get along by just playing and defeating stuff. You do have to be sure you get that daily since Laurels are so useful, but if you play 6 hours a day that is pretty much an auto. At lower levels like 2-3 hours you will have to focus daily, so it gets a bit grindy. And the Badges of Honor for discount Ascended have been really good to stretch the Laurels for multiple alts. Guild Commendations for Ascended accessories are a blessing if your guild can do the required activities. Doing a bunch of World Bosses everyday is still grindy too, but I try to vary the ones I visit and that helps a bit. Grinding dungeons and or Fractals is not my style either (though Fractals are apparently the best way to get a lot of the Ascended gear, and at least some Fractals are the only way to get a back item.)

I guess it really is impossible to design a game like this with no grind at all.

Yes. Everything you just said is 500% true. Wow. Such understand. Very advice. Thanks. Wow. Much explanation. Wow. ( lol thank you though)

Great explantion. But there is no doubt I have gotten less exotic in the last few weeks. I usually got 1-3 a week—but since all the changes—nadda one.

Im running with 150 base MF, 20 amulet and 40 food (yes with the boon duration) so thats about 210 MF and i net 1-3 exotics per event in WvW with my guild.. about 10-20 rares.

I did salvage like 1200 champion bags worth of loot and 4000 ectos… lawl, and im halfway to 300

Sandra Martino.3870:

Im running with 150 base MF, 20 amulet and 40 food (yes with the boon duration) so thats about 210 MF and i net 1-3 exotics per event in WvW with my guild.. about 10-20 rares.

I did salvage like 1200 champion bags worth of loot and 4000 ectos… lawl, and im halfway to 300

I do not think that this thread has the purpose of bragging bout your high stats. MF doesn’t influence drops from any containers, this includes champions bags.

It does increase the change off dropping the exotic champ bags instead of rare or lower quality.

mercury ranique.2170:

Sandra Martino.3870:

Im running with 150 base MF, 20 amulet and 40 food (yes with the boon duration) so thats about 210 MF and i net 1-3 exotics per event in WvW with my guild.. about 10-20 rares.

I did salvage like 1200 champion bags worth of loot and 4000 ectos… lawl, and im halfway to 300

I do not think that this thread has the purpose of bragging bout your high stats. MF doesn’t influence drops from any containers, this includes champions bags.

It does increase the change off dropping the exotic champ bags instead of rare or lower quality.

On the other hand the champ bags seems to have a relatively high drop rate for rares and exotics.

mercury ranique.2170:

Avatar Rage.4369:

Neek.9531:

I got my main elementalist to level 80 a month and a half ago and still have not gotten an exotic drop. Wvw has done me nothing, champ and world boss events have gotten me nothing, and fractals have done me nothing. I have 56sh magic find (last time I checked but that was a while ago). Someone donate me there exotics because I want my kitten globs already.

A decent way of doing it is by combining weapons in the mystic forge.

4 blues = 1 green
4 greens = 1 rare
4 rares = 1 exotic

Not a 100% reliable way of doing it but you can sell the ones you don’t want for some quick cash and buy one too.

To be fair, it is far from 100%, if you throw in 4 rares you have a 20% change to get an exotic.

For the rest, as being said exotic drops are very rare. Farm money and buy what you need is the best option.

For me it’s closer to 2%…. I throw in 60 I might be lucky enough to get 1 exotic out of it. I know more than once I got a masterwork back though (even though they swear they fixed that bug a long time ago)